Welcome To My Garden Blog…

Working in the garden, looking and admiring nature, watching how organisms interact all feed my inner being. Getting my hands into the soil connects me with the earth.

This is probably why I am so drawn to work in clay (porcelain and other earth clays).

Here in my Mid-Atlantic, US garden, which is considered Hardiness Zone 7A by the USDA, Spring is here and will soon be coming to a close.

I have cleared most of the Coneflowers and Black Eyed Susans that had Aster yellows and am keeping a close eye for other plants showing symptoms this year.

I am delighted to say that I am again, falling in love with my garden. 2011 growing season stuck a fork right through my heart, and I am happy it is now in the past and nature is taking her turn at moving things forward into the 2012 growing season...

I'm a frozen plant encased in ice fanatic... I think we're expecting some freezing rain this Christmas day (Friday) but we're under at least 18" of snow from the recent blizzard, so the encased things may be a bit limited...

Guess I will have to wait for my grass frozen in ice crunchy noise fix until things thaw, then we get freezing rain again. It's like being a kid with bubble wrap - who can resist?

It's called My Mom Pattie and all the items in there are made by some really cool artists that have donated their time and materials to make jewelry (and possibly other items) to sell through this shop, where all the monies earned will go to a non-profit organization.

For details on where the collected monies are currently going, check out my other blog:

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

You know, the ones that are just so cool that even people that aren't "cat people" actually like?

They make you think they are part dog or something?

Well, this is our cat Peeves...

She is one of those cats...

She is a dilute calico, adopted through the Humane Society of DE about 8 years ago.

She had been "returned" to the shelter after a weekend being fostered out because she was

"too active". We thought... Um - kittens are supposed to be quite active... She'll be perfect company to our 21 pound "white whale, moby dick, and so on with the large cat nicknames" cat "Stinker" (she was needing a friend to hang out with)...

They get along fine. But Peeves is by far the funniest and friendliest cat we could have ever have wanted. Here she was just lounging at the end of the couch the other night...

And she puts up with our antics. She is also great with Chloe and her constant chasing her around yelling "Hi Meow" or some sort of her name "Peeves". She is a constant joy and really loves to be around people. When you come to our house, she is the first one to run to the door to greet you... Wonderful little hostess... Makes everyone feel right at home by giving them just the right amount of attention, and comic relief in some way...

I bet Peeves would have loved to have met this little Garter Snake.

My dad is up visiting for the week and he and Chloe were out back going for a little walk into the woods, when dad noticed that Chloe was standing on something moving around quite alarmingly...

She had been standing on this little snake's head...

Needless to say it was quite upset to have been stepped on and after dad picked up Chloe they stood and watched it for a while...

Then we picked it up and moved it up closer to the edge of the woods where it could hopefully find a place to hibernate for the winter. Good think Chloe doesn't weigh too much, or that it wasn't a larger snake... And so happy I wasn't with her when she stepped on it, because I probably would have screamed just a bit (more in the jumping kind of scream and not the scared, freaking out one).